Endangered species: a white middle-aged Tory still in the government. Just.

Good morning. We’ve just had the night of the long knives – for middle-aged Tory ministers at least. Now for the promotions, and you can expect a disproportionate number of them to be younger and female. Will Britain join the list of countries with female defence secretaries? Will Esther McVey, Liz Truss and Priti Patel become the new faces of David Cameron’s government? And will any of them much welcome the idea that this is a mission to bring on the women? I discuss this with Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth in this special edition of The View from 22, The Spectator’s podcast.

Don’t be silly – this is not a night of the long knives. Its just a reshuffle with some younger people coming in and older ones shuffling off.

MirthaTidville

wish you`d shuffle off

Colonel Mustard

And lo! The spoon faced weather vane turns in the wind and cravenly appeases the ageist racists and sexists who see nothing wrong in using the term “male, pale and stale”.

What a country. When that communist git turns us into East Germany next year we will deserve it.

HookesLaw

Yoiu will deserve it – don’t count me in. its you with your pathetic waffling tripe and people like you who would elect Miliband. Whjat a bunch of loony hysterics you are.

Colonel Mustard

No, we won’t deserve it. It is Cameron who has split the right rather than uniting it. And he has done so to appease and placate lefties who hate him and will never vote for him anyway.

Don’t confuse the ‘public’ narrative of the bubble with what real people actually think.

JoeDM

And now we get Dave’s Token Tory Totties.

While the hard working and successful Owen Patterson gets sacked !!!

Peter Stroud

Absolutely right!

goatmince

Of course the Sectretary of State for Guaranteed Annual Returns for Monsanto and Flooding was sacked.
Our future Green Monarch will surely welcome that too.

Kitty MLB

I think maybe William Hague was ready to leave and this was a good time to do so.
The purge of the older man. Agree with the departure of all of those, especially
old floppy haired Ken Clarke.
But David Davis as party chairman instead of loathsome Shapps would be excellent
and Philip Davies- MP for Shipley would be excellent .
Not too sure about the ex TV presenter. And I hope Penny Mordaunt and Priti Patel
will be promoted- or are they to right wing.
But I say it again its not about gender but capability. The pc correct labelling and placing people in boxes is utterly wrong and patronizing.

telemachus

I am suspicious of all this
Why is Hague going?
What is the non political background?
Why are people not reacting with horror at the leak of Fox coming back?
As for Davis as Chairman, I hope so – he is dangerously unstable and will be good for the forces of reason

Kitty MLB

William Hague wishes to stand down next May and
write books.Escape the suffocating world of
politics.

Liam Fox. I once had a rather embarrassing encounter with him, whilst in M&S Bath a few
years back..I still blush thinking about it.

Shazza

Ooh Kitty, do tell us…….!

alabenn

Hague wanted to leave before the last election, he remained at the request of Cameron.
Try learning some background before embarking on mindless slogan chanting.

telemachus

You KNOW that?

Colonel Mustard

“Try learning some background before embarking on mindless slogan chanting.”

Hee-hee. Don’t hold your breath for that.

Shazza

Cameron can’t win. Firstly he is accused of not having enough women in post and when he promotes women, he is then accused of patronising women.
I wish the MSM would make up their minds.

alabenn

The MSM made their minds up when Labour took up the mindless slogan about Bullingdon boys, they run with it because they have group think pygmies as their lead writers and presenters.
You can sometimes feel the visceral hatred slipping out from under the duvet, when the likes of Boulton comment.

Shazza

Only the Left can hate with such ferocity. Dan Hannan over at The Telegraph once wrote a very enlightened commentary on his blog regarding their hatred.

I think part of this hatred is because the Left’s policies consistently deliver failure and lead to increased poverty, social break down, etc. etc. and this in turn fuels hatred towards the Right – the more success the Right delivers, the more hatred the Left display.

The Left are just big bullies, resort to class attacks, etc. in the face of any coherent argument. Their answer to debate is just to shout and make mindless accusations.

Don’t forget that Boulton’s wife was a spin doctor for Blair.

HookesLaw

David Davis, come to the aid of the party and the country? Come off it.

Adam Carter

David Davis put his country before his party and before his own career when he resigned his seat and fought a by-election on the issue of 42 day detention without charge.
He frightened Labour out of the debate and Davis, more than any other individual, is responsible for halting the slide into that nightmare of authoritarianism.
You might say that Cameron and the other ‘conservatives’ would have stopped this in another way, but you can’t know that. Davis had the courage to make a stand, at the cost of his own place in Cameron’s cabinet. No Cameroon has done, or would do, anything similar.
David Davis: chapeau.